The Minister for Education is dragging his feet on minor works funding for primary schools and is therefore causing most of these schools severe financial problems. The capitation grant rate has not increased, and this money, which was paid this day last year, now looks at best, will be paid out at end of year [...][Continue Reading...]

It has come to my attention that it is now acknowledged by the Department of Agriculture and the Government that if the Mercosur trade deal between the EU and the South American countries goes ahead, the cost to Irish and European beef prices will be between 8% and 16% and it cannot be allowed to [...][Continue Reading...]

I warmly welcome the news that work on the 15 million Euro upgrade of the facilities at Knock Airport is to get underway very soon and I also welcome the news that much of that work will be carried out by local contractors which will create local employment. Over the next three years major work [...][Continue Reading...]

I have said many times in the past that EU land designation is putting a huge burden on farmers and land owners, and letters being sent out by banks to farmers saying they will not accept designated lands as security is proof of that fact. It is past time that the Government acted on this [...][Continue Reading...]

It is well past time that the issue of rural crime was tackled in a realistic way to prevent people living alone being terrified in their own homes especially during the winter months. I have long believed that when the local community Garda was lost to rural communities we lost contact with people on the [...][Continue Reading...]

I have been very disappointed with the lack of support from the two main parties to amendments I and others brought forward to the Finance Bill as it relates to the sale of agricultural and other land. However despite a defeat last week at the Finance Committee the battle is not over as the measures [...][Continue Reading...]

The revelations in last weeks’ documentary about standards in the private rental sector were shocking, but the policiy of the Government under the recently published National Planning Framework Draft will contribute to that situation continuing and getting worse as we concentrate all our resources on a few large cities, and Dublin in particular. In addition, [...][Continue Reading...]

It is disappointing but not surprising to learn this week that the ambulance response times in the Western Region of Roscommon, Galway and Mayo, are the slowest in the country and this is a matter that I have raised constantly since I was elected, yet my pleas on this matter have fallen on deaf ears. [...][Continue Reading...]

There are so many glaring omissions from the Draft National Planning Framework published on Thursday last and it is a document that pays little or no heed to rural Ireland and to the West in particular. If we have any aspirations to support rural Ireland then we must put the infrastructure in place to support [...][Continue Reading...]

A points system whereby people on the housing list would be allocated a house in an area where they may not want to live initially but would move there, and as a result they would be allocated points that would move them up the priority list when a house does become available in their area [...][Continue Reading...]